Falling Leaves

We made it through our first truly rainy day last Friday with enthusiasm, and have been loving watching the changes in the woods this week. Every day more leaves are gone, the color is changing, and discoveries abound. This week we started a curriculum during morning circle called the Kindness Curriculum, the focus of which is mindfulness and kindness. We'll use this curriculum a couple of times a week for the next few months, and will learn about emotion recognition, strategies for dealing with emotions, ways to cultivate kindness and friendship with peers, and gratitude. Ask your child about the feather on the string that came home on Monday! 

In other news, it's time to make sure your winter gear is in order for your child - it's only a matter of time before we have snow, and these cold mornings are requiring good warm clothing. Even though it's warming up in the afternoons, the majority of our day is spent in the cold forest. When looking at the weather check the overnight low - that's likely close to the temperature in the forest when your child arrives at school in the morning. If you're ever wondering if you're sending too much clothing, the answer is no! We can always shed layers if we get too warm. 

Though these pictures only tell part of the story of the week (it's impossible to capture everything that happens, and we try to be mindful of having cameras out too often), enjoy some of the fun from the past week!

A rainy day creates the perfect opportunity for painting. 

We strung up this shower curtain as the perfect canvas. 

Adding leaves creates a fun texture!

A rainy day relay race: kids had to open a tricky container (think challenging snack containers - we need all the practice we can get!) to get an acorn, then run the acorn through the obstacle course to Chippy's hole!

She was a professional opening those containers!

A stump geo-board with a friend under our rain shelter for a short respite from the rain.

We read the great math book "Hanna's Collections" and decided to do some collecting of our own.

Then we sorted the collections and created the start of a nature museum.

This week we started to introduce some tools. We read books about hammers and screw drivers, and then learned how to safely use them. 

Pumpkins are perfect for learning how to hammer small nails!

This hand crank drill requires great coordination and determination - it's not easy!

We also went on an expedition looking for holes. One hole is punched in the card for every hole found. We found holes everywhere!

We even found a hole that was big enough to fit an entire preschooler!

We melted some paraffin wax using our Kelly Kettle base, and had fun dipping beautiful leaves.

The leaves will hold their color for much longer, and we'll use them for some art projects next week.